By Donald A. Steinbrugge
It is no secret that the hedge fund industry is viewed negatively by a large portion of the general public, but should it be? Such a perception is driven primarily by the fact that most hedge funds are not permitted to market themselves to the general public, and because the mainstream media has a negative bias toward their coverage of the industry. The average person is inundated with negative articles creating the image that: 1.) Most hedge fund managers are dishonest and frequently commit fraud or violate insider trading laws. 2.) Hedge funds are highly risky investments. 3.) Their devious actions are bad for the general public. 4.) Hedge funds generate bad performance and their fees are too high.
Is the general’s public perception of the hedge fund industry equal to reality? Let’s take a closer look at each one of these points:
Is the average hedge fund manager dishonest? Of course not. The industry is not comprised of a bunch of Bernie Madoffs, as many people would believe. Agecroft ...

Guest columnist Charles Skorina looks at the five-headed NYC pension system with its new leader, Scott Evans.

By Charles Skorina
In July, Scott Evans reported for duty as Chief Investment Officer in New York City's Bureau of Asset Management, where he'll manage $160 billion in employee pension funds.
Traditionally the city's CIO is replaced when the political wheel turns, which it did last fall.
Retiring Mayor Michael Bloomberg was succeeded by William De Blasio; and Comptroller John Liu, the independently-elected custodian of the city's pension funds, was replaced by Scott Stringer.
Mr. Stringer beat back a last-minute primary challenge from disgraced ...

(March 24 update) We present here recent anecdotals on the subject of climate change. It's a topic that affects many industries: insurance, real estate, energy (renewable and non-), food, water, national defense, to name a few. Investment opportunities arise when there is a divergence of opinion, as is uniquely the case in the United States (unlike the other nations on Earth) on the subject of climate change. There's an argument to be made that investors who accept the settled science ...

What the divestment debate comes down to is how boards define their fiduciary duty.
[Spoiler: We don't think divestment is a good idea]
We're recruiters in the business of finding chief investment officers and senior asset managers, and our readers worry more about investing than divesting. So you may be forgiven if you overlooked Global Divestment Day on Friday, February 13.
It was spearheaded by Bill McKibben's 350.org/Fossil Free group with support from many other Green enthusiasts. Mr. McKibben is the Pied Piper ...

Hedge fund managers and investors see eye-to-eye on some important subjects, according to a survey by Northern Trust.
But the same survey also cautions: there is a termite in the firewood. The two groups don’t see at all eye-to-eye on transparency.
First, the good news. Managers and investors are agreed that hiring the right people is a top priority for the industry looking ahead. Almost half of managers (45%), and a little more than half of the investors (56%), see the recruitment and retention of talent as a high priority, either the ...

What's a Poor, Gainfully Employed Fiduciary to do?
Charles Skorina discussed the fiduciary's obligation vis-a-vis the movement to divest fossil fuel investments from many endowment portfolios on these pages on March 5. He argues against divesting because of fiduciary responsibilities and says: "What the divestment debate comes down to is how boards define their fiduciary duty. Traditionally that duty included getting the best possible returns from donated funds consistent with an appropriate level of risk." We'd agree that this is de rigeur if one is to be the very model of a modern major fiduciary.
We suspect ...

The March 2015 report from Eurekahedge makes a point of how much the hedge fund world has changed since 2007. For example, the share of globally mandated funds has risen to 65.7%, up 8.1% from eight years ago, because geographic diversification has become an important part of diversification sans adjective.
Eurekahedge makes the related but distinct point that investing in a globally mandated fund is a cautious way of getting some exposure to the emerging market word. It’s just a lot less scary that investing directly in an EM fund. The ...

KPMG, MFA & AIMA: Institutional Investors & CustomizationSurveys suggest that certain conspicuous ongoing trends will continue. For example, the classic 20 + 2 fee structure will continue to crumble, replaced by "customized" structures. A full 91% of the small hedge fund managers who filled out a survey agreed with this. A mere 76% of large hedge fund managers did likewise.

KPMG, the Managed Funds Association, and the Alternative Investment Management Association have jointly issued a report on the future of the hedge fund industry. The gist of the report will likely surprise few within the industry. What it amounts to is: certain conspicuous ongoing trends will continue.
For example: institutional investors now drive and will continue to drive the growth of the industry. Most of the managers surveyed for the report say that pension funds in particular will be their primary sources of capital by 2020.
Why pension funds? In large part ...

In a class action lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Illinois, HTG Capital Partners claims that the U.S. Treasury futures market is rigged by a user of the HFT tactic of “spoofing.”
Specifically, the CBOT in Chicago is the scene of the crime, of a “clear, discernable, and consistent pattern of manipulative and disruptive trading” in five, ten, and thirty-year Treasury futures.
The intriguing part: who is HTG Capital Partners? HTG boasts on its webpage of ...

If a drunk is walking randomly around a lamppost, then the fact that his first step of the day was away from the lamp post is supposed to tell us nothing about the direction of his next step, or his last step of the day. Of course, in saying so I’m rather stretching that old thought experiment, because I have to assume that the experimenters have kept him drunk all day – perhaps with an ...

Most Investors Sanguine About Central Clearing MandatesThe international push to mandate central clearing has expanded the clearinghouses "well beyond levels the market has ever seen," Greenwich Associates reminds us in a new report. This is an experiment, and there remains some grounds for uncertainty about the outcome.

A new report by Greenwich Associates looks at the pros and cons of central clearing from the point of view of participants in the interest-rate derivatives markets.
The report is the result of a two-round survey. First, in 2014, GA interviewed 4,036 global fixed-income investors about their dealer relationships and use of various fixed-income products including interest-rate derivatives.
Separately, GA conducted another 72 more in-depth interviews about market participant “views on systemic risk, the impacts of central ...

ESMA to Member States: You’re Not Doing Enough Re: MiFiDA newly released report tells us that ESMA is unhappy with the national "competent authorities" as to how they've enforced MiFiD. the report implies that the adjective in the phrase "competent authorities" is to be understood as a courtesy rather than a description.

Authorities released last month a review of Europe’s 2010 Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, or MiFiD.
Specifically, the European Securities and Market Authority published a peer review on the way in which the national regulators in Europe have supervised and enforced the MiFid provisions concerning firm’s obligations on best execution. Alpha seekers would be well advised to review this report an early warning of the sort of continued regulatory tightening that may be in store.
Paris-based ESMA ...